Thread: Getting started, new to straight razor

Try several! My first was extremely small and it worked like a champ. Still use it in rotation. I do have a very large one and the adrenaline rush is great when I use that one. It is probably one of the sharpest I have and it is neat to watch that large blade. It is a bit much under the nose though. I have about a dozen (all different sizes) and I find the variety to be very refreshing. Over the past month I have focused on one (about 6/8) so I can work on my technique a bit. Enjoying that quite a bit. I would pick something middle of the road to start with than pick something significantly different for your second. One is enough unless you need to send it out for sharpening. Then, having a backup works great. Several here on the board have developed a strange disease where they simply cannot stop purchasing/acquiring either razors, strops, or other 'stuff' associated with wet shaving.

Pick one to get started. Spend several months with that one. Enjoy yourself and have fun!
Scott

From one relatively newbie to another welcome to the board. I can vouch that the members here are very helpful and very knowledgeable.

I started with a shavette, this is to practice the skills necessary for a straight razor shave rather than trying to learn a load of new skills at once (shaving, stropping, lathering the brush, honing etc.) and to concentrate on one at a time. I've written more about that in other posts.

Anyway good luck in finding your straight razor, there is a guy called Taylor1000 that sells vintage straight razors for beginners for reasonable prices and will hone them to shave ready grade before posting to you. I believe there is a US and UK dealer so contact him to find out. Kropp is apparently a good starter razor too. But he labels his razors "suitable for beginners" if you are unsure and also if your razor is over £50 the honing (shave ready prep) is free, if its under £50 then you only have to pay £5 to have this service.

Cheers,

Strops

Welcome to SRP! This might be obvious, but be aware when other posters says "classifieds," they mean the Classifieds area of this site (not some random, Craigs-list or local classifieds). Most of all of those selling in our Classifieds area have a community and reputation at stake and can be considered reliable.

I started with a new Dovo (the cheapest one) and with a used vintage razor from a trusted seller, and I still use them both (in fact, they remain my only two!). I had them both honed by one of the "honemeisters" here.

Welcome again, and good luck!

I suggest buying either a new razor from a source that will professionally hone it before shipment or a shave ready vintage razor from the classifieds section of shave web sites (not e-bay). I have obtained most of my razors from the classifieds with good results. Shaving hobbyists usually know about and care about what they are selling which is often not the case on e-bay where the sale may be the sole motivation.

The vast majority of vintage razors for sale are 5/8, a vote from the past on what is the "best" width. I often use 4/8 to 7/8 widths. I avoid spike points to help prevent "battle scars", but find round points or muted or slightly rounded square points to be OK. I find the 5/8 nimble, but not difficult to control while shaving, stropping, and honing. The 7/8 is less nimble but covers my face with fewer strokes needed.

The most important critical factor for shaving success is that the razor being used have a shave ready edge and that one learns how to keep that edge in a shave ready condition. There are many capable razors, but even the finest razor made will not shave unless it has a shave ready edge. Stropping is required after every shave so stropping is critical for shaving success. When stropping starts to lose effectiveness, touch-ups on a finishing hone or pasted strop will be needed to restore the edge to shave readiness. These skills must be learned because they have to be done too frequently for it to be practical to send out the razor for service. Honing will have to be done eventually when touch-ups no longer are effective, or if the edge has been damaged by striking an object.

The need to re-hone a formerly shave ready edge happens infrequently enough so that some SR users send their SRs out to a pro for this service. However, many SR users acquire a set of hones and learn to re-hone their own straight razors and reset the edges of newly acquired vintage razors which are not received shave ready.

A pro honed razor should not need stropping before its first use. Stropping a newly received pro honed razor (the pro has already stropped the razor) runs the risk of spoiling the edge by bad stropping. It is not possible to avoid the consequences of possible bad stropping after the first pro honed razor use because stropping is needed after every shave.

HTH

My personal recommendation is to buy vintage razors from members here in the classifieds, or Larry at Whipped Dog. Get three, of various sizes.
If you are able then to determine which you prefer, and avoid Razor acquisition Disease (RAD), you could then sell the other two for almost what you paid for them, assuming you took good care of them.

Souschefdude speaks the truth. Three cheaper vintage blades from whipped dog is a great start.

Unfortunately I still haven't found the perfect razor, and I have 2 dozen in rotation! But I'll keep looking!

Hi and welcome. Maybe start with a few cheaper razor's to learn with and once proficient get something better. This way you won't mind too much if you stuff it up. Good luck. Ed

Boker, Dovo, Thiers-Issard, Ralf Aust and Revisor. 5/8 or 6/8 round point is best to start. Not much difference between these 2 sizes. A good strop, soap or cream & brush will be all you need to get going. You can buy from many good sites including SRD and the classifieds here. Whatever you do don't buy your first from ebay and make sure you buy from someone who will supply it shave ready no a factory edge.

I got PayPal to work finally and ordered my first straight razor! Now I have to get the other stuff I need. I might hold off on buying some of it until I get off of vacation, but I just can't wait to start learning how to use it. My friends are all scared and told me not to get one but I did it anyways. I have a lot of time on my hands so learning this will take some of the excess time I have. Thanks for all of the advice and help it is all appreciated. Also what kind of cream/soap would you guys recommend?